WILLEM OOREBEEK (B. 1953)

Currently based in Belgium, Dutch artist Willem Oorebeek studied at the Academy of Art in Rotterdam and served as a lecturer at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, De Ateliers in Amsterdam, and the Hochschule der Künste in Hamburg. A hallmark of Oorebeek’s work is the "blackout": swaths of black ink overlaid onto found printed material. This act of obfuscation unpredictably emphasizes the content it conceals, as the black ink interacts with the printed inks below, allowing the images and texts of the found material to emerge. His lithographic works reflect and capitalize upon the representational power of mass media.

In 2013, Oorebeek, alongside Lucy Skaer and Christopher Williams, was featured in Kunstverein's exhibition "Tradition." The exhibition showcased the extensive collection of historic textiles amassed by Seth Siegelaub over the past thirty years for the Center for Social Research on Old Textiles (CSROT) at Marres, Centre for Contemporary Culture.